While I'm sad they didn't rename the boss SKULLFUCKER PRIME, they couldn't have known to do that. I loved the fact they used the Scanners tabbed scene. I don't know if it was coincidence or if they actually saw a commenter saying that and decided to throw it in there or if they were going to do that all along, but either way it was nice.
Awesome episode. Jokes were on point, callbacks were great. Kayaba and Kirito understood each others references. Klein's blubbering and happiness over Kirito was great. Laying down groundwork about glitches, and having Kayaba wtf at it, helped sell the 'Why was Asuna able to move?' scene. (Personal headfanon? When Kayaba disables his godmode and admin cheats, he accidentally undoes the paralysis he just put on everybody. Nobody noticed it for the whole Kayaba-Kirito fight because they're derps.)
And they even made Kayaba's motivations and actions make sense and feel very human. 'Kayaba was sleep-deprived at the time' and 'Kayaba's actually just as much of a fuck-up as anybody' and 'Kayaba doesn't want to go to jail, and has massive sunk cost fallacy' helps cover most possible Fridge Logic a good deal. It's not perfect, but it helps; you're sold on it and can more easily believe because you can just imagine that some things just fell through the cracks. And after the 500-hours-awake fugue stopped, he kept going because he didn't want to land in jail but didn't know how to get out of the whole thing. (Insert SpecOps/Sword Art: The Line reference here.) There's a sort of feeling of understandable or realistic-feeling bad decision making and stubbornness and sunk cost fallacy.
Hell, I genuinely felt a bit sad for him at the "Oh. For a moment there I was happy." scene.
Though... they didn't quite sell me on some of the times when Kirito cared about things or people. And I mean, even despite that we've been seeing hints of that part of his character ever since the Black Cats episode, it still feels a bit... abrupt, or awkward, when Kirito is being too heroic. I mean, parts of it were actually fine and I bought that Kirito and Asuna could drop their sarcastic facades even and be serious. And, again, there has been set up and support for this characterization since early on (heck you could even say that Kirito deciding to take time to help Klein, a total noob, in the first episode was an example of it!) buuut still... Though the fact that Klein keeps interrupting and Kirito is annoyed and finally asks him to stop, does help sell it; that moment felt more real, more natural.
I don't think there shouldn't be serious, dramatic, or heroic moments; I feel like there's room for them. They shouldn't just cut them and have their characters sarcastically biting or cynical all the time. But it feels like when they come up in SAO Abridged, that the story kind of skips a beat or stumbles a bit. Maybe if Kirito's moments of heroism, compassion, or sympathy were more awkward? If they felt more like they came from somebody who was feeling a bit out of their depths. Because as is, instead they feel like a bit of an abrupt switch instead. More stuff like Kirito giving a 'I'm trying to have a moment here, Klein!' type of response perhaps? That time felt genuine, and he wasn't just being dismissive of Klein (just understandably frustrated maybe), while still feeling like Abridged!Kirito.
Despite having spent more word-count criticizing it though... I feel like this was an excellent episode, and an excellent end to a season. It really was quite good.
Shame about the lack of SKULLFUCKER PRIME though.
Awesome episode. Jokes were on point, callbacks were great. Kayaba and Kirito understood each others references. Klein's blubbering and happiness over Kirito was great. Laying down groundwork about glitches, and having Kayaba wtf at it, helped sell the 'Why was Asuna able to move?' scene. (Personal headfanon? When Kayaba disables his godmode and admin cheats, he accidentally undoes the paralysis he just put on everybody. Nobody noticed it for the whole Kayaba-Kirito fight because they're derps.)
And they even made Kayaba's motivations and actions make sense and feel very human. 'Kayaba was sleep-deprived at the time' and 'Kayaba's actually just as much of a fuck-up as anybody' and 'Kayaba doesn't want to go to jail, and has massive sunk cost fallacy' helps cover most possible Fridge Logic a good deal. It's not perfect, but it helps; you're sold on it and can more easily believe because you can just imagine that some things just fell through the cracks. And after the 500-hours-awake fugue stopped, he kept going because he didn't want to land in jail but didn't know how to get out of the whole thing. (Insert SpecOps/Sword Art: The Line reference here.) There's a sort of feeling of understandable or realistic-feeling bad decision making and stubbornness and sunk cost fallacy.
Hell, I genuinely felt a bit sad for him at the "Oh. For a moment there I was happy." scene.
Though... they didn't quite sell me on some of the times when Kirito cared about things or people. And I mean, even despite that we've been seeing hints of that part of his character ever since the Black Cats episode, it still feels a bit... abrupt, or awkward, when Kirito is being too heroic. I mean, parts of it were actually fine and I bought that Kirito and Asuna could drop their sarcastic facades even and be serious. And, again, there has been set up and support for this characterization since early on (heck you could even say that Kirito deciding to take time to help Klein, a total noob, in the first episode was an example of it!) buuut still... Though the fact that Klein keeps interrupting and Kirito is annoyed and finally asks him to stop, does help sell it; that moment felt more real, more natural.
I don't think there shouldn't be serious, dramatic, or heroic moments; I feel like there's room for them. They shouldn't just cut them and have their characters sarcastically biting or cynical all the time. But it feels like when they come up in SAO Abridged, that the story kind of skips a beat or stumbles a bit. Maybe if Kirito's moments of heroism, compassion, or sympathy were more awkward? If they felt more like they came from somebody who was feeling a bit out of their depths. Because as is, instead they feel like a bit of an abrupt switch instead. More stuff like Kirito giving a 'I'm trying to have a moment here, Klein!' type of response perhaps? That time felt genuine, and he wasn't just being dismissive of Klein (just understandably frustrated maybe), while still feeling like Abridged!Kirito.
Despite having spent more word-count criticizing it though... I feel like this was an excellent episode, and an excellent end to a season. It really was quite good.
Shame about the lack of SKULLFUCKER PRIME though.
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